Tag Archives: 50th birthday

With my 50th birthday less than three weeks away, I decided to list 50 things that make me happy. This list is in no particular order and by no means is it complete. I’ve left off the big and obvious ones – my friends, family, job and health.

6. Travelling – all the new places, faces, smells, sights, foods and sounds that challenge, delight, intrigue and excite.

7. Those first green shoots in the garden. After months of Canadian winter, they are a thrill and a promise.

8. Ringing church bells

9. Eggs. I love what they represent. I love their shape. I love the way they look and feel. I love their incredible fragility and yet they have the strength of a dome structure (bet you can’t crush a chicken egg in your hand).

10. The smell of tomato plants in the sun.

11. Swimming and playing in the water.

12. Philosophical debates

13. Pine trees – the way they smell, their wooden, fractal-inspired cones and their deep moan on windy nights

14. Board games. I loved them as a kid and I still love them now.

15. Songs from the ’80s. I was a teenager then and no music is more evocative for me.

16. The first cup of coffee in the morning.

17. Skeletons and skulls.

18. Sincere compliments – giving and getting them

19. Really good shoes – especially red ones.

20. Hallowe’en – the colours, the candies, the dressing up and costumes, the spooky fun and giggly scares.

21. Nuzzling the warm little nape of a baby’s neck and smelling that baby smell.

22. No alarm clocks. I love a morning where I don’t have to be up by a certain time even if I rarely sleep in.

23. Horses’ hooves clip clopping.

24. A big cozy chair, a drink, a great book, likely a kitty snuggled in my lap and time to read.